London by William Blake

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  • London by William Blake
    • Language
      • repetition - sign/scar notices the people he sees.
        • "Marks"
        • "every"
          • highlights universal affect of oppression
      • sibilance
        • "hapless soldier's sigh"
          • presents soldier as powerless through his sigh.
      • plosive verbs
        • "blasts/blights"
          • implies violence
      • Oxymoron
        • "marriage hearse"
          • links death to marriage - the marriage tradition seen as having the function to produce children,
      • archetypes every individual shows universality
        • "the" in the third stanza
    • Context
      • "Chimney sweeper's cry"
        • IN 8th C London child labour was common place. chimney sweeps struggled due to poverty and oppression.
      • "youthful harlot's curse... the new-born infant's cry"
        • Young prostitute's curse - syphilis - killer of women.
          • "Marriage Hearse"
        • juxtaposed with the baby's cry suggests the corrupting of innocence.
      • "black'ning church appalls"
      • "Runs in blood down palace walls."
        • colours of red and black refer to the French Revolution (1789-1799) and may imply that London could also revolt against institutions of Church and State (monarchy).
    • Form
      • Blake uses regular rhyme and rhythm as this is a song produced for Songs of Experience
      • Iambic Tetrameter - broke at lines 4, 9-12,14-15, creates a heavy rhythm.
      • "I wander" - 1st Person walker, without purpose.
      • "flow...woe"
        • regular alternative rhyme echoing drudgery and inevitability of regular ordinary life
    • Theme
      • "chartered street...chartered Thames" frustration at people owning every aspect of the city; even the river, Everyone in the city is affected and "stained" by misery.
  • "marriage hearse"
    • links death to marriage - the marriage tradition seen as having the function to produce children,

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